Another week, another extended deadline for CentrePointe, the long delayed but apparently back under construction development that so far has produced little more than a city block-wide crater in the heart of downtown Lexington.
“We have extended CentrePointe’s building permits for 30 days and continue to monitor progress at the site,” Susan Straub, spokeswoman for Mayor Jim Gray, said in a statement April 14.
The city has been locked in a high-stakes game of chicken with Dudley Webb, the local developer and chairman of The Webb Cos.
The latest move marked the second time in little more than two weeks that the city set a deadline for the project and then extended it once the deadline had passed.
The city previously had pointed to a March 30 deadline, after which it had warned for months it could enforce a fill-in order or even take over the site as part of a restoration agreement. The Webb Cos. always disputed the city’s position that no work was being done at the site, despite it sitting largely idle for years.
But when the city’s March 30 deadline came, Webb Cos. construction workers were setting rebar and pouring concrete for the parking structure, and the city held off .
At that time, the city issued a statement insisting it has a contract that “allows us to demand that the company fill in the hole. But it does not require us to do so.” The city then set another deadline, April 14.
But when that deadline came, the city’s only move was to extend CentrePointe’s building permits by another month, while insisting it could still enforce the fill-in order under the restoration agreement contract.
The latest developments seem to affirm the perception that Webb simply has called the city’s bluff .
“I’m not sure that exists anymore,” Webb recently told Business Lexington when asked about the fill-in deadline. “That’s behind us. We’re proceeding with construction, just as we have every right to do.”
Webb said the parking garage would be completed in eight to 10 months. After that, he said, a collection of mixed-use buildings, including two hotels and office and retail space, would be built on top of the garage.
Meanwhile, a vocal critic of the project — indeed of both the city’s and Webb’s handling of it — said he has been satisfied with the progress he now sees.
Council member-at-large Richard Moloney acknowledged that construction isn’t going as fast as he would like but said work is being done.
“[Webb] has them pouring concrete and putting up the rebar. So there is construction going on down there,” said Moloney. “I asked the city building inspection department to check to make sure there is actual work going on, and they confi rm that there is.”
Moloney said he is hopeful work will be steady.
“My concern is that a hole would be dug here, then six months later another hole would be dug there, and so on,” he said. “I’ve seen work done like that before. For CentrePointe, that kind of activity would not be in compliance.”
CentrePointe is sure to be major topic May 5, when Webb is scheduled to be interviewed at The Lexington Forum at the University of Kentucky’s Boone Faculty Center.
Just months ago, the city was entertaining the possibility of building a new city hall as part of the CentrePointe development. New developers — Kentucky investor Matt Collins and a New York City development company — emerged last summer to off er a plan to do just that. But after conducting a $198,000 feasibility study for a potential city hall site, the city balked at the terms proposed by the developers, who then quickly bowed out, putting the project back in Webb’s hands.
Although the city still needs a modern government center, no new plans have been announced.
“Moving forward on a new city hall is not part of the budget the mayor has proposed for FY2017,” said Straub. “It is on the back burner for now as we focus on other projects. The previous study gave us some options and resolved the question about locating a new building on the CentrePointe site. There is no study currently underway.”
Moloney said he found the original study to be too limited because it only recommended the CentrePointe site, the city-owned transit center and the convention center as potential city hall sites.
“I was disappointed in the whole damn thing,” said Moloney. “It was a waste of time. They spent all their time and energy on Dudley’s property.”